greatly indebted to these early inventors, not the least of whom
is the gallant Sir Hiram Maxim.



CHAPTER XIX
The Wright Brothers and their Secret Experiments

In the beginning of the twentieth century many of the leading
European newspapers contained brief reports of aerial experiments
which were being carried out at Dayton, in the State of Ohio,
America. So wonderful were the results of these experiments, and
so mysterious were the movements of the two brothers--Orville and
Wilbur Wright--who conducted them, that many Europeans would not
believe the reports.

No inventors have gone about their work more carefully,
methodically, and secretly than did these two Americans, who,
hidden from prying eyes, "far from the madding crowd", obtained
results which brought them undying fame in the world of aviation.

For years they worked at their self-imposed task of constructing
a flying machine which would really soar among the clouds. They
had read brief accounts of the experiments carried out by Otto
Lilienthal, and in many ways the ground had been well paved for
them. It was their great ambition to become real "human birds";
"birds" that would not only glide along down the hillside, but
would fly free and unfettered, choosing their aerial paths of
travel and their places of destination.